In this article, I want to provide you with insight on what the main blocks of your yearly baseball training periodization should look like and what the overall goals of each phase should be.
Periodization is a pretty complex topic, so I’d recommend bookmarking this past article as well so you can really upskill yourself in this area.
The term “periodization” simply represents the process of organizing your training into phases. These phases are placed in a logical order for the purpose of optimizing your long-term baseball performance, avoiding psychological burnout, and preventing injury.
Single weeks of training are most often referred to as microcycles, and longer “blocks” of training are referred to as mesocycles, while the plan for the entire year (in-season + off-season) would be known as a macrocycle.
Periodization is a highly, highly complex topic that encompasses the manipulation of a wide range of training factors, including but not limited to:
- Volume
- Intensity
- Frequency
- Rep range
- Exercise selection
- Exercise order
- Rest intervals
- Deload periods
- Active rest periods
- Tapering and peaking phases
- Specificity of program design outputs
Among many other equally important factors.
It is an irreplaceable, totally “make or break” component of your off-season programming that is relevant to baseball players of all levels.
Goal Setting for Baseball
There are many different periodization models in existence, but for the purpose of simplicity, I want to break down each block of training just like you would normally see it in your everyday baseball life.
- Off-Season General physical preparation (GPP)
- Off-Season Specific physical preparation (SPP)
- Pre-season
- In-season
- Post-season
Goal setting for each phase is incredibly important because it is within the goal setting that you are able to rationalize the exercise selection, workout frequency, and overall volumes/intensities you will be training at during that phase/block.
How you manipulate the variables of program design (volume, intensity, frequency, density) will be the subject of many future articles (but if you read carefully in the past I have really discussed much of this — especially when you look at all of the free workouts I have provided).
But without further ado, let’s look at how you can structure your entire year’s worth of baseball training.
Training Block | Goals Of The Phase | Program Design |
GPP | – General fitness improvement – Structural balance – Technical base – Connective tissue integrity | – High volume – High frequency – Low/moderate intensity – General in design (not baseball specific) |
SPP | – Maintenance of general fitness base – Improvement of baseball-specific fitness – Improvement of technical base – Increase in speed, agility, conditioning, quickness, strength, and power | – Low/moderate weight training volume – Moderate/high weight training intensity |
Pre-season | – Maintenance of GPP – Maintenance of SPP – Maintenance/Improvement of technical skill – Increase in speed, agility, conditioning, quickness, strength, and power – Optimal sport-specific design (and not general) – Emphasize recovery | – Moderate/high unloaded training volume – Some general training, but much more specific training – Increased mental and physical complexity of drills |
In-season | – Maintenance of GPP – Maintenance of SPP – Maintenance of technical skill – Maintenance of speed, agility, conditioning, quickness, strength, and power – Emphasize recovery – Prioritize performance | – Low volume for everything – Low frequency for everything – High intensity when it makes sense from a recovery perspective – Sport-specific exercise selection – Emphasis on pre-hab |
Post-season | – Active rest and recovery – Rekindle psychological fire for training and diet | – High volume – Very low intensity – Moderate frequency – Mostly unstructured training – Lots of variety |
Final Thoughts
It is my goal that this website becomes the #1 resource for evidence-based baseball training information that you can immediately use and apply in your own life to become an all-around better baseball player.
This article may not have included a “free workout” — but it did include something much more important than that…
How your entire year of baseball training should be structured.
This in combination with the information I have provided in the past provides you a goldmine of information that would have otherwise cost you thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of experience to learn.
Take advantage of this article, it’s a game changer.
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If you’re interested in using completely “done for you” training programs to maximize every last ounce of performance optimization to create the ultimate baseball athlete, check out our programs here today.
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